Wichita eagle., 1887-05-28
MEDICAL FALLACIES.
A SILLY NOTION IN REGARD TO
INACTION OF THE LIVER.

A Warning Against 'Spring Medicine"
Liver Invigorators" and "Blood Puri-
iers"-Ouinine as Friend and .
FOe-Its Abuse.
1t is a popular error that certain seasons
call for the taking Of certain forms OF medi-
cine, even when there seems to be no change
from health. Thus, "a good spring medicine"
is now called for by many otherwise sensible
people as regularly as our ancestors asked
their physicians for their annual or quarterly
blood letting. The ''spring medicine" is
something to purify the blood" and this
means an active cathartic, as a rule. The
purity of the blood is probably not affected
by any such drugs. 1t becomes impure" by
reason Of some special poison, like that of
ague, typhoid fever, measles, smallpox or the
like. entering the life current and increasing
therein, or by reason of the lungs, kidneys
or skin not properly acting, rs q rule
1t is possible for many disturbances Of di-
gestion and other arrangements of health to
follow inaction of the bowels, but cathartics
do not remedy the trouble. Their action is
almost certain to increase the torpor of the
intestines and add to the evil they were de-
signed to remedy. The enormous evils occa-
stoned by the careless use of such medicines
cannot be overestimated. They occasion q
large proportion of the i'll health prevalent in
any community If proper attention is given
to regulating the exercise, food and drink,
together with methodical habits relative to
the calls of nature, such drugs will be seldom,
if ever, called for.
THE TORPID LIVER" BUGBEAR.
Another silly notion that is widely preva-
lent is that relative to inaction of the liver
The term torpid liver" is in every ones
mouth, and is held to account for every bad
feeling, whether 1t be due to excess in eating
or drinking, late hours, lack of muscular ex-
ercise, excitement over bad ventures on the
market or other form of dissipation The
liver is quite an important organ, and has
much to do with the secondary processes Of
digestion-those which go on after the
stomach and paacreas have done their work
but it is innocent of most of the sins laid at
its door. The bile is manufactured in large
amounts daily, but we know positively of but
few uses to which it Is put in the body, and
of still fewer drugs that are able to increase
the daily output If we were certain that we
could. at will, stimulate this huge gland to
secure more bile, it is very uncertain that
any benefit would result from '.arousing it
from its torpor."
This may be rank heresy, according to
many old practitioners, but it is truth. Ac-
cording to some recent and Trustworthy Gu-
thoritieS, the continuous loss of all the bile
secreted does no harm. As the liver strains
out Of the blood, that contains the crude re-
suits Of the first digestion of food, many hurt
full and even poisonous materials, which are
sent back again in the bile to be worked over
before they are sent into the circulation, it is
possible to conceive that the total loss Of all
bile secreted would not be anything to be re-
GREETED. 1t might necessitate some increase
in the amount of food taken, say. Ey few
ounces, but the bile loser would not suffer at
all seriously.
TEE "BITTERs' FALLAcY.
1t is proycn beyond dispute that such drugs
as calomel and podoehyllin do not increase
the flow Of bile 10 any appreciable extent.
That they act beneficially in many instances
cannot be questioned. but it is not by 'swak-
ing up torpid liver" Such Spring medi-
cines," silver invigorators' and 'blood purifi-
ers" as contain rbubarb aloes, colocynth and
the like, produce CT prolong constipation and
all its attendant evils Those composed of
SIENNA, tamarinds, buckthorn and mandrake"
avoided as useless or injurious, especially if
their use is to be protracted. Simple bitters
are useful during the process of recovery af-
ter such diseases as the ordinary fevers, and
when the appetite is poor without any appar-
ent cause. But no one should persist long in
their use. They will finally disorder diges-
ton and do more harm than good, especially
if there is an appreciable quantity of alcohol
are quassia, gentian, "boneset" and columbia
They ought not to be taken unless there is
q serious loss of appetite, such as to hinder
the taking Of the necessary quantity of food.
Probably the best form in which TO employ
simple bitters is in pill or infusion (tea), of
which the old fashioned "bonesetn tea is
good example.
A FRIEND AND A FOE.
Quinine and other preparations of Peruvian
bark are among the most valuable medicines
vet known Wherever malarial diseases pre-
vail to a serious extent they are almost indis-
pensible to the preservation of health. With
out them the lower Mississippi valley and the
alluvial bottoms" Of all tropical and sub
tropical regions would not be habitable by
the white race. They reduce the temperature
in typhoid and some other fevers not of ma
larial origin. They are often curative in neu-
ralgia, whether it arises from malaria or some
obscure cause not of that nature. In diseases
showing tendency to periodical return qui-
nine is of vast service, and this mark of mani
fest reriodicity is what shows the sphere of
its probable usefulness. Is tic intermit-
tency of symptoms call for Gt.iEji;e, IS rule,
i'll the same way, ii should be given intermit-
tent!v If it is given day after day and week
after week, it produces harmful disturbances,
and becomes useless rs a medicine i'll cases for
which it would be suitable under other cir
cumstances.. 1t causes an irritable condition
of both mind and nerves, besides interfering
with the digestion.
The nervous, sleepless, hysterical condition
due to prolonged use of quinine is known to
every sufferer from the "quinine habit and
his associates. 1t is too costly and valuable
remedy to he uselessly wasted, to say nothing
of its deleterious effects. The bad reputation
it has attac he'd TO it in some localities has not
been earned by its legitimate employment,
but is due TO the abuse of it III the hands of
the ignorant or careless Cor. Globe Demo |
bringing the Eisons Back.